It started when I was a child. Every holiday with my dad’s family, the mashed potatoes came out, and it was a frenzy. My uncle Billy, my grandfather, and I would load up, devouring what seemed like a truck full of mashed potatoes. Usually, I would end the meal with a plate of half- eaten mashed potatoes and sadness that I could never finish them all.

Fast forward to today. Now, I have a lovely wife who makes wonderful, healthy food – all full of vibrancy and flavor. But there has always been a bit of a hole in my heart that only mashed potatoes could fill. So when Jeanine told me that we were making mashed potatoes, I was both excited and hesitant. There had to be a catch, and there was – cauliflower.

My fears were soon assuaged when we tried the cauliflower mashed potatoes. We mixed (roasted) garlic, olive oil, and 1 part cauliflower puree with 2 parts potato put through a ricer.

What we ended up with were some of the smoothest, lightest clouds of mashed potatoes ever. In spite of the lack of “butter lake,” I’m officially a convert. I still ended up overly full and staring at a plate bowl of half eaten potatoes, but happy to know that they’re back in my life.

If you love these, click here for more vegetarian Thanksgiving recipe ideas.

Roast a whole garlic bulb for 1 hour using this method or drizzle individual cloves with olive oil and salt and bake at 350 until soft (about 15 minutes).

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the potatoes and the cauliflower (I did them at the same time) and boil until knife-tender (until you can poke with a knife and it easily slides out). My cauliflower took about 15 minutes, while my potatoes took 25-35.

In a food processor, puree the cauliflower with roasted garlic, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, rosemary, and a few generous pinches of salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings. (Tip: this mixture can be over-flavored because it'll get mixed with the potatoes later).

When the potatoes are soft, remove them from the pot. Peel them (careful, they’re hot) and use a food mill, ricer, or masher, to mash them. Add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil, then stir the cauliflower puree into the bowl with the potatoes. Stir in a folding motion until smooth and creamy. If necessary, add ¼ cup (or so) of hot starchy potato water to help it out. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more olive oil, salt, pepper, and/or rosemary to taste.

Serve hot. Mine actually reheated great too - store in the fridge, microwave the next day.

Notes

I'd advise against using raw garlic here. (We tested it, and it's just too strong). If you don't feel like roasting the garlic, make garlic-oil instead. Smash a few cloves into your ¼ cup of olive oil. Let it infuse for at least a few minutes and remove garlic pieces before using.

This recipe can also be adapted to make a cauliflower puree without the potatoes. Double up the cauliflower and adjust seasonings to taste.

these look so, so good. i totally feel the same way about mashed potatoes jack! i could eat a whole batch and still want more. adding cauliflower sounds so awesome. but…i agree with molly – i still want a butter lake.

These sound fabulous. I think I’m going to sneak the cauliflower in for thanksgiving dinner!! When I make garlic mashed potatoes and I don’t have time to roast a head of garlic I just boil the garlic in with the potatoes, the mash in beautifully and boiling takes the sharpness and edge out of the garlic.

I saw this post this morning and was dying to try it out. I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious. You can’t even tell there is cauliflower. The roasted garlic is so much better than putting in raw garlic. I don’t know why I never thought about roasting garlic first. I will definitely be making this again soon! Thank you so much!

Oh Jeanine and Jack, this post was so adorable 🙂 I’m a HUGE fan of mashed potatoes and it’s quite embarrassing/impressive how much I can put away. I actually am a big fan of cauliflower, I’ll probably ask to make this for the friendsgiving potluck! xx

I’m not exactly sure since I haven’t tried it (and since there are so few ingredients here, it might make a big difference). If you give it a try, I would definitely use less than what’s listed in the recipe since dried spices are more concentrated.

I made your mashed cauliflower for lunch today and it was absolutely delicious, everybody loved it! Sadly we don’t have a food mill, ricer or masher so I used a fork – took quite a long time but was SO worth it 😉
Thank you for this scrumptious recipe 😀

was looking for a recipe using my least favourite veg – cauliflower.. and one that omits dairy and finally found this! Tried this for dinner and it was AWESOME! Thank you guys! Tried it with dried rosemary, as it’s not so easily available where we are. The taste was still great that my niece made sure there was nothing left in the bowl. Super fluffy, super yummy! Thank you!

Thank you so much for this yummy recipe. No one knew it was cauliflower until I told them. I used the left overs to make Shepard Pie and that meal was so light but filling. I will definitely be making these again.